This image depicts the Star Goddess Nuit, also called Nut by the ancient Egyptians. She is wearing a starry crown and holding a crescent moon. Nuit is also the called the Sky-Goddess. Depicted in ancient paintings in tombs, her body is shown as the night sky, and her hands and feet reach down to touch the earth.

Nuit is one of the oldest gods in the Egyptian religious pantheon. Traveling to Egypt in 2010, and seeing a relief of Nut in the ceiling of an upstairs temple in Dendara was one of the most amazing experiences I have ever had.

Nuit, The Star Goddess with Isis and Osiris by Stevyn Llewellyn 2014 – Prints available soon

This smaller shrine dedicated to Osiris, is on the roof of Hathor’s temple. I entered this nearly by accident. I remained in there, in awe, trying to take in the history of this place, thinking of those whom occupied it long ago, by firelight, worshiping this image above. I took this photo below, which doesn’t give the experience justice. The head of the goddess has become worn away, which makes it all the more mysterious. The entire temple was dark, and the walls sooty, presumably from smoke from torches to illuminate this place. I can imagine it was brilliantly painted, a spectacular shrine for the devotees to occupy.

The Goddess Nuit carved into a temple ceiling. Photo by Stevyn Llewellyn, 2010.

The imagery represents the lunar festival of Khoiakh in which a bed for Osiris was filled with grain seed and soil as part of a fertility rite.

Nuit’s symbol is the ladder, whom the god Osiris uses to enter her realm. This symbol was also used to protect the dead.
During the night, The heavenly bodies of the sun and moon would be swallowed by Nut, then reborn at dawn. Her body is depicted black and full of stars.

This Goddess has a resurgence in Thelema, which is still practiced today. Founded by Occultist Aleister Crowley, he recites beautifully, describing this goddess with these words:“I am the blue-lidded daughter of Sunset; I am the naked brilliance of the voluptuous night-sky.”And also:“Then saith the prophet and slave of the beauteous one: Who am I, and what shall be the sign? So she answered him, bending down, a lambent flame of blue, all-touching, all penetrant, her lovely hands upon the black earth, & her lithe body arched for love, and her soft feet not hurting the little flowers: Thou knowest! And the sign shall be my ecstasy, the consciousness of the continuity of existence, the omnipresence of my body.”Read the entire book Liber AL vel Legis sub figurâ CCXX online here.